The Notebook
by Mindylynn
Summary: Amanda gets a threatening note about a police officers notebook and needs Steve and Mark's help.
1. Chapter 1

Amanda unlocked the door, grabbing the mail as she walked into the hallway. She hung up her jacket on the coat rack in the hallway thumbing through the mail as she entered the kitchen/dining area. Nothing unusual bill's, a postcard from her friend in New Jersey, advertisements, then she came to the bottom of the stack. "Hum, this is strange," she said to herself. There's no postage and not return address. It had been a long day and she was tired, if she hadn't been so tired she would have thought twice before opening the envelope with no postage and not return address. She opened it, to find a short message, obviously written on a computer.

 _Officer Donlin's Crime Scene Notebook_

 _Missing_

 _It was on his person when he was sent to your morgue_

 _We'll be calling with date, time and place for you to return it to us._

 _Don't tell anyone. We know where you live, work , how to get to your boyfriend and where your son_

 _Goes to school._

Amanda gasped as she read the note, frightened for herself, Steve, but mostly her son C.J., who was six and would be home from first grade in about an hour. Steve, her longtime friend and who she was currently dating, was a member of LA police force. She knew the danger in involving the police, but also knew she couldn't keep this from Steve or the police she would need their help.

She thought for a moment or two trying to remember Officer Donlin's case; he was a police officer killed in the line of duty about three months ago. He did come to her morgue, but there wasn't anything unusual about the case that she could remember. She had turned all his belonging over to the police, she was sure his notebook, like one most police officers carried was given to the department with the rest of his stuff. Not knowing what to do, she sent a text to Steve.

 _Received a strange note today, it has me baffled and spooked. Need to see you, unofficially, warned no police. Need to be careful._

It took almost an hour before Steve responded, he had been interviewing a witness to another case. As soon as he read the text. He grabbed his jacket, sent a text.

 _Meet me at the supermarket down the street from you. I'll find a way to meet you there and a way for us to talk privately._

Relieved that Steve would help her, she called her neighbor's daughter to watch C.J. she took him over to their place, making the excuse that her heater wasn't working right and with it starting to rain to may be too chilly to watch him at her house.

Amanda made a point to tell the sitter she just needed to pick up some paperwork. She wanted C.J. safe and didn't want to involve her mother. She didn't think whoever was behind this would try anything at the neighbors, feeling they would want to keep a low profile. She wanted to make sure if someone was listening they would hear her say something about paperwork and assume she was heading for her office. If they were following her she didn't think it would be too suspicious to stop at the grocery store on the way, she often stopped on her way to or from work. She would have to be careful and rely on Steve to make sure they thought he knew nothing. He was a good detective he would find a way.

Before leaving for the supermarket she made sure she had the letter in her purse. When she arrived at the supermarket she realized she had been gripping the steering wheel until her knuckles turned white. As she parked, she noticed Steve's truck was already in the parking lot; she also noticed a dark green car, pull in two rows away. The car looked familiar, she wondered if she had been followed.

As she exited her vehicle she saw Dr. Morley from the hospital walk toward his car, he waved, she waved back and made a point to say, just grabbing some stuff for dinner before I head back to the office for some paperwork. C.J. would be hungry by the time she returned.

As she entered the store, she grabbed a basket, so she would be forced to turn so she could see the green car. Whoever was in it hadn't left. She hoped that meant they heard what she said to Dr Morley and believed the story about grabbing something for dinner didn't feel the need to follow her.

She had been in the store about 10 minutes and had wondered back by the meat department. She was absentmindedly looking at the steaks, when the butcher, said "I just got some new steaks cut, would you like to have a look at the fresh ones," The voice was unmistakably Dr. Mark Sloan, Steve's dad dressed in a butcher's jacket and hat. She smiled.

"Yes, I would"

"Well, come on back." He lead her around a wall toward the cooler, out of sight of the rest of the store. There was a small office to the right, Steve reached out and pulled her in.

Relief of having some help she hugged him and started shaking. Steve held her for a minute and said, "If they followed you, we need to be quick so they don't suspect. Give me the letter, Dad will give you some steak to purchase, go to your office pretend to go through files, Jessie will meet you there. He'll walk you out, when you get home I'll be there. Don't worry, we'll make it look like I just stopped by after work like I often do."

She gave him a quick kiss and lift. Still frightened, but feeling better.


	2. Chapter 2

As Amanda reached the morgue, she was shaking from fright. She lowered herself into her chair, took a deep breath and opened a file drawer. She was absently thumbing through the file, when something dropped in the hallway, startling her out of her stupor. She decided she might as well see if her files gave her any clues.

About twenty minutes later she hadn't found anything, as Jesse, a fellow doctor and good friend came in He leaned down and whispered, in case, someone was listening. "Steve told me what's going on, after a short conversation I'll walk you to your car. Invite me for dinner."

"Ok," Amanda shakenly replied. She was usually didn't scare easy, but they had threatened her son and her friends.

Jesse, acting like he didn't have a clue what was going on, , "Are you alright? You look a little pale."

"Just over worked and hungry, what can I do for you, Jesse?"

"Do you have the report on Mr. Trinlin, he died yesterday?"

"Yes, why it seemed a simple case of hit and run – all injuries consistent with being hit by a car?"

"Just double checking everything, his family had questions."

He takes a minute to pretend to look through a file.

"Well, I'm off shift now, since you look so tired I will walk you to your car, to make sure you go home. I thought you had left earlier."

"I did, just wanted to grab this file."

She picks up a file.

As they leave, someone passes by them and rounds a corner. They don't notice him because he is dressed like an orderly. He makes a phone call. "Hey, she seems good. Some nosy doctor friend was asking her questions and she didn't reveal anything. I think we've got her spooked."

Jesse and Amanda chit chat about small things, when they get to the parking lot Jesse mentions he is starving.

"Why don't you come by for dinner; I just bought these delicious looking steaks."

"Sure"

This plan allowed Jesse to follow Amanda home without arousing suspicion.

True to his word, Steve was there when they arrived. He had picked up CJ and was playing catch. Feiging surprise that Steve was there she gave him a quick kiss. CJ ran to give his mom a hug.

"Steve, I didn't expect you tonight; what a wonderful surprise. Jesse came for dinner, you'll stay too, right?"

"Of course, what's wrong you look upset."

"Just tired, my furnace doesn't work and I'm starving." This part of the conversation was for any listening ears.

"Well, let us in and I'll take a look at your furnace and we'll enjoy a good dinner. Of course," he teased," if I had a key I could have fixed it already."

Amanda blushed and Jesse just giggled at his two friends.

Steve did a quick check and didn't find any bugs, but to be sage he indicated through gestures to keep up the game just in case.

Steve and Jesse were assigned the grilling and Amanda and CJ mad a salad. Mark showed up just in time to eat.

Even though they were all nervous they still managed, for CJ's sake to enjoy dinner. After dinner it was homework time for CJ, Jesse volunteered to watch CH while Steve and Amanda went for a walk.

They began the conversation by Steve asking again if she was alright, she again replied just tired, but not hungry anymore, that should satisfy anyone who may be listening.

They walked through the park acting like it was a normal stroll through the park of two people deeply absorbed in one another.

They talked in whispered tones." I've had your phones tapped both your landline and cell phone. The department is checking the letter for prints an any other possible evidence. I plan to spend tomorrow on this case only. Tomorrow is Friday, so when we get back I'll invite you to the beach house for the weekend. We'll have everything set up there to keep you sage and track the perps. I'll stay the night tonight."

Amanda gave him a raised eyebrow. Even though she had had similar thoughts in the past, she wasn't sure she was ready for the next step in their relationship quite yet.

"I only wish… it will be a cover, so I can be there in case they call – just play along."

Back at the house, "Amanda, Dad and I want you and CJ to come to the beach house for the weekend. I promised CJ some beach time and luck would have it I don't have to work this weekend.."

She smiled, "Sounds fun,after work tomorrow?"

"Yeah," he took her in his arms and kissed her.

"Let's get rid of the other two adults now."

"CJ is here l you know"

"I know , I will keep it appropriate for his sake."

Soon CJ was in bed, Mark and Jesse had left. Steve was on the couch. Amanda curled up next to him, feeling comfort in his arms. They both drifted off to sleep.

They were awoken at 5:30 the next morning with Amanda's cell phone ringing.


	3. Chapter 3

Amanda woke with a start as her phone rang. Reaching for the nightstand that wasn't there; she realized she and Steve had spent the night on the couch. Quickly finding her phone she stammered, "Hello."

"I know you're not alone, get up and pretend you're talking to someone you know."

Amanda nudges Steve who tries to listen in.

"Mother, why are you calling so early? Is everything alright?"

"Good – keep it up. Listen then reply of course you can pick C.J. up from school."

At 6:00 tomorrow evening I will call with further instructions for the drop off of the notebook. Be ready."

"Yes, of course you can pick C.J. up from school."

The caller hung up.

Steve checked, it was too short of a call, no trace. It had been recorded at headquarters and they would work on isolating sounds to narrow down a location.

Amanda looked at Steve, they talked in whispers, " What do I do now, I don't have the notebook."

"I checked the last one used on the case, from evidence and what I had time to go through didn't reveal why they would want it. I'll look at it a little more closely today. I'll talk to the captain about getting a copy or a fake one just in case we need to fake the turn over."

Steve brings Amanda into an embrace, just as the sun begins to rise. "How beautiful? I wish

it wasn't spoiled by that madman."

Steve turned her face toward him. Still whispering, "We're figure it out and keep you and C. J. safe."

"What about you? He threatened you too."

"It will be alright." He then leaned in and they shared a long, passionate kiss.

At this point C.J walked in. "Mom, is it morning? I'm hungry."

Surprised Amanda and Steve jumped backward; Steve caught his foot on the blanket and feel backward. Steve created quite a sight and Amanda couldn't help but burst out laughing. Steve's unintentional fall and subsequent tangling in the blanket became the comic relief for a tense situation.

At work later that day Steve took a break from the notebook. He remembered the morning after so clumsily falling on his backside. He had enjoyed breakfast with Amanda and C.J. He thought he could get use to mornings like that.

Since the notebook wasn't yielding any new information that the department didn't already know; he began to wonder if there was another notebook the police didn't know about. He decided he needed to talk to his dad about his theory and see if he had any ideas. His dad was good about seeing things that were less obvious. He had plans to meet his dad for lunch.

Later that day, in the hospital cafeteria Steve and Mark were enjoying lunch. Hospital food was one of Steve's favorites, his dad didn't understand this, but was glad to have lunch with his son anyway. He was happy with Steve's relationship with Amanda, but it also meant he saw less of his son.

Mark had just looked through the notebook, "This is pretty full, do you think Officer Donlin could have started a new one, that the department doesn't know about?"

"That's what I was thinking, but usually he would have had it on him, where could it be if he did have another one, if so that's the one they probably want, it must have something in it and where is it?"

"I'll stop by and see Amanda then head for the department, see if I can find out who he hung out with in his off time, or places he frequented and start looking there."

Steve stopped to see Amanda on his way out, reminding her of their plans for the weekend. As he walked out to the parking lot, someone watched from a green car, it looked like things were starting to go his way, the boyfriend just might help him find that notebook after all.


	4. Chapter 4

Steve headed for the station and talked with a few who had hung out with Officer Donlin, they all stated he carried a notebook with him at all time and if one was filled he always got a new one right away. They said he claimed it was the only want for him to keep things straight. This was nothing unusual, as most police officers did the same thing. He did learn Donlin liked to go fishing and had an older jeep he only used for going to the mountains to fish. They said he didn't keep it at his apartment complex because he was allowed only one slot. No one really knew where he kept it.

Steve started a search and after a about an hour he found what he was looking for. Donlin had a storage unit on the main road leading the canyon that had his favorite fishing spot. The size of unit would probably be just big enough to put a jeep in. He decided to check it out. Just as he was walking out his dad called, so he decided to take him along.

They stopped at the manager's office and got a key to the unit. Sure enough, as soon, as they pulled up the door, it was like a garage door, there was the jeep. Steve started going through the jeep. No notebook in the glove compartment, or under the front seats. He did find a notebook under the back seat, but it didn't have any police notes in it. It looked like his personal notes, grocery list, etc. Just then he heard a click and heard his dad say, "Look out son." He didn't even get a chance to turn around when the back of his head exploded in pain and he everything went black.

He heard a voice, telling him to stay down and try not to move. His head was pounding and his right arm was sore. As he became more aware he recognized the voice as his dad's. He blinked a few times and Mark's face slowly came into focus. Or at least a blurry focus. "Ah, man, what happened?"

Two guys came in put a gun to my head, clobbered you on the head and took the notebook you had just found, then locked us in. I called Jesse, he's coming to get us. "Why didn't you call the police?"

"Jesse was the first one I thought of," Mark sheepishly replied.

"Help me up." Steve let out a groan as he head didn't react to trying to sit up very well and when he leaned on his right arm to help push him up he let out a cry.

"If they hit me on the head, why does my arm hurt so bad?"

"When you collapsed after being hit, you fell out of the jeep and landed on your arm, I think it's only brusied and sprained, not broken." Mark helped him sit up."When we get out of here, you are, do you hear me, you are going to Community General and get checked out."

Steve, wasn't in a mood to argue, so he shook his head, that was a mistake, but agreed.

"Well, the notebook they took wasn't the right one, it was a personal notebook, just grocery lists and stuff like that."

Mark smiled, and pulled out another notebook. The one they had been looking for.

Shocked Steve asked, "Where did you find it?"

"In his fishing tackle box.'

Soon they heard the door being opened and Jesse and Amanda rushed in. Amanda ran to Steve to check him out. After assuring herself that though he was injured he would be alright she helped him up. "Let's get your to the hospital, then you can call your captain and report this."

After an hour of poking and prodding, it was determined Steve had a concussion, a bruised arm and sprained wrist. Mark took him home, under condition he sleep upstairs in the guest room, so he could easily wake him to do neuro checks throughout the night.

The next morning, though he still had a headache and was tired from being awoken throughout the night Steve was feeling better and wanted to get back to work on the case.

There wasn't much in the notebook, some first names – Randall, Jeff, Shirley and Duncun. The last entry was "All the World's a Stage…" Steve thought it sounded familiar, but it didn't make sense.

Amanda stopped by on her way to work to see how Steve was doing; she took a look at the clues and said, "I think I have an idea…"


	5. Chapter 5

"Well, are you going to tell us?" asked Steve.

"All the World's a Stage comes from Shakespeare's play 'As You Like It' and while I don't think Donlan meant it the way Shakespeare meant it, I think he means those names are the players and the playwright or someone else is the boss. It may have been his way of making note to check on a theater company as well."

Mark agreed, "That makes more sense than anything I'd thought of, if there a way to see if any theater companies in town employ anyone with the names listed?"

Steve said, "I can check on it.."

Mark cut him off, "You are not going to work today, you still have a concussion and I can tell even though you are acting better than last night you still have a headache. You can call and have someone from the department check into it and let you know."

Steve was never good at hiding pain or illnesses from his father. He huffed and said "Ok" then went to call the department.

Amanda said, "While we're waiting for a reply C.J. is here for his fun weekend, so let's walk to the beach. I think Steve can handle a stroll."

Amanda and Steve walked along the beach hand in hand while C.J. ran to the edge of the water and ran back when it lapped at his feet. Mark wanting to give them some privacy make an excuse of needing to get things done around the house. They both knew what he was up to.

They eventually settled down and built sandcastles with C. J. This wasn't exactly what he wanted to do today, he had to paddle out just a ways on a surf board with C.J., but he had to admit he wasn't feeling up to that today.

A couple of hours later, they were on back at the house enjoying some lemonade on the back porch when Steve's phone rang. It was the department, they found a downtown theater that was being renovated and Randall (one of the names in the notebook) was listed as the owner. This was a break. As they discussed it, they developed a plan, Mark would pose as a playwright that wanted his play performed – he would arrange a meeting and take his assistant, Amanda, with him. Steve was not happy with the plan, but knew he couldn't pull off a playwright role. He would just come along as Amanda's boyfriend, which was the truth anyway, to keep an eye on things.

It took until Monday for Randall to call Mark back, he really didn't want to meet with Mark. He claimed they weren't ready to look at scripts yet. Mark was insistent. Mark felt Randall eventually realized he needed to play along or blow whatever he was up to. They arranged to meet the next day at 1:oo PM.

Steve made arrangements to have back up close by. He was hoping this would all be over after tomorrow.


	6. Chapter 6

As they walked into the theater it didn't look like too much remodeling was taking place. Randall directed them to his office, all the while, looking at Steve, finally he said. "You look familiar, do I know you?"

"I don't think so, I'm just here with Amanda, we're headed out of town after this meeting." Steve quickly replied.

"You must look like someone I know."

Mark was quite convincing as a playwright. After a few moments Steve excused himself to use the restroom. He took this opportunity to snoop around and found a narrow hallway in back of the stage that led to several rooms. Only one was locked. Just as he was trying to figure out a way in Randall yelled, "Stop." Steve turned to see Amanda and his father being held at gunpoint. "I thought I recognized you, you're a cop and this is the coroner. I know you must have the notebook. Hand it over!"

"Man, we're smarter than that we didn't bring it with us."

"I'll just keep this pretty lady here while you go get it. Leave your gun here , my associate will go with you." He hollered at someone not seen. Little did he know Steve's backup had detained his associate in the parking lot.

As Steve carefully reached for his gun he took the opportunity to signal an SOS with is phone in the other pocket.

As Randall was picking up Steve's gun, Steve's back up rushed in – taking the opportunity while Randall was distracted he tackled him, getting him away from Amanda and his dad, put landing hard with his sore arm twisted under Randall. He heard a snap and knew he had broken it this time. Mark grabbed Steve's gun and held it on Randall as the back up cuffed him.

While Mark attended to Steve the rest of the officers broke into the locked room – finding all sort so missing military weapons. Apparently Donlin had stumbled onto the operation in the course of another investigation.

One Week Later

With his arm in a cast Steve and Amanda walked along the beach hand in hand. They stopped to watch the setting sun. Amanda leaned against Steve, then turned and slugged him in his good shoulder.

"What was that for?"

"For nearly getting yourself killed, when you tackled Randall. He could have shot you."

He took Amanda in his good arm, "I couldn't have stood by while you're in danger. I'm trained for those situations. Yes, my judgment may have been clouded because you were in danger, but I realized I can't live without you."

"Well, think about it from my point of view, I can't live without you either, so promise me you'll always be careful as possible and as safe as possible. I realize you have a dangerous job, but you love it, but try always to come home safe. I love you."

"I love you too."

"So where does all this leave us now?"

"Let's enjoy the sunset first then I have an idea, something to ask you."

And so they did.


End file.
